Rab Noakes & Brooks Williams. Should We Tell Him – Songs By Don Everly

It’s poignant that Rab Noakes’ last album release is a tribute to one half of The Everlys, the brother Don. Noakes made no secret of his love for The Everlys. They were the first concert he attended when he moved to Glasgow from his native Fife back in 1963 and when asked to pick a favourite vinyl disc to play and discuss when at Perth’s Southern Fried Festival a few years ago, he chose one of their albums to enthuse about.

Having long harboured an ambition to record some of Don Everly’s compositions, considering him to be severely underrated as a songwriter, Noakes found a fellow disciple in the shape of American Brooks Williams, a long time fan of Noakes. The pair met when Williams invited Noakes to play on his Glasgow recorded album Lucky Star and happened to mention his love of The Everlys, the spark which ignited this album. It took them a couple of years and a pandemic to eventually get together and do it but do it they did and it’s a glorious listen.

Taking their cues from a mimeographed Don Everly songbook which Noakes had picked up in Nashville back in the 1980s, the pair eschew the hits with most of the songs here originally released as b- sides or album cuts. With the focus primarily on Don’s songwriting there’s not much evidence of the brothers’ trademark sound, their celebrated sibling harmonies. Noakes and Williams do harmonise on several of the songs here but the impetus is on reinterpreting the songs, Noakes famously disliked the concept of just covering a song. It’s a measure of the album’s success that if you had no idea of its provenance, you’d be delighted to hear such a triumphant collection of songs.

With an A list of a backing band (Hilary Brooks (piano and accordion), Kevin McGuire (bass), Conor Smith (electric guitar and pedal steel) and Signy Jakobsdottir (drums)) Noakes and Williams turn in perfect deliveries ranging in style from country rock to rockabilly and all out teenage romance. They open with a bang on the keening pedal steel led It Only Costs A Dime, a sumptuous dip into classic country rock with Noakes sounding quite superb in his lonesome yearnings. Sigh, Cry, Almost Die follows with its slap double bass and walking rhythm harking back to heartbroken teen idols crying their hearts out back in the ‘50s. Should We Tell Him then delves into the early Everly sound as Noakes and Williams join in on the harmonies while the band update it a bit with slippery pedal steel interludes and some tremendous acoustic guitar playing. Williams takes over lead vocals on the sweet country lament of Hello Amy, another song which features the excellent pedal steel playing of Smith who excels throughout especially on the woozy waltz time of I’ll Never Get Over You.

An electrifying performance of Since You Broke My Heart finds Noakes and Williams vying to be considered as honorary members of The Travelling Wilburys on what is a tremendous thrash, a feat they repeat on I’m Not Angry with the band delivering a grand frat-rock rhythm. I Wonder If I Care As Much winds things down with a carousel like arrangement and with Noakes and Williams harmonising perfectly and the album closes on an appropriate note with the valedictory lament which is It’s Over, ironic really as it’s the last song we’ll hear from the much missed Rab Noakes.

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Steve Grozier Back Lane EP

 

It’s been a while since we heard from Glasgow’s Steve Grozier, an artist and songwriter who Blabber’n’Smoke, along with several other websites and publications have lauded for his reflective songs which, as he says are “about the darker aspects of life.” He returns to the fray with this four song EP, surprisingly, a collection of previously released songs but recorded in a stripped back fashion live in Glasgow’s La Chunky Studios with Johnny Smillie at the recording helm.

If you’ve seen Grozier live then you might know what to expect here. His guitar is almost caressed, tenderly picked and played, as his lonesome voice delivers the oh so lonesome lyrics. There are three songs gathered from his album All That’s Been Lost along with a revisit to his E.P. Take My Leave. Stripped of their previous robes (which included Neil Young & Crazy Horse like country grunge and sweet water pedal steel rock) these songs find Grozier in a much more confident solo stance than he was when we last encountered him on stage pre pandemic. He must have been practicing.

Power In The Light, according to Grozier his most popular song on Spotify, ditches the sweeping strings and muscular guitar solos from the album version and arrives here in, strangely enough, a more redemptive fashion. Whereas the original had an inherent sense of helplessness woven within it with Grozier’s voice like a cry from the wilderness across frozen wastes, here it’s much warmer, his voice less prophetic and more hopeful.  Charlie’s Old Mustang/Graveyard, originally a dusty alt-country outing, here, stripped back to its basics, allows this poignant tale of a graveyard visit its full measure.

Twenty Third Street was the very attractive opening song on All That’s Been Lost, delivered in a sweet country rock style with lashings of pedal steel and twangy telecaster. Grozier totally dials it down here taking the song at a much slower place and giving it a fine wintry New York feel as if he’s following in the slushy boot heels of Dylan on the album cover of Freewheelin’ while the mention of losing his mind in the Chelsea hotel inevitable invokes memories of the late and much lamented L. Cohen. It’s the most successful makeover here and is beautifully delivered. The E.P. closes with Take My Leave, a song originally released back in 2016 in an already stripped back acoustic fashion. It might only be seven years in between but this new version does seem to portray a singer who is less strident and more comfortable in his own skin.

While a new set of songs from Grozier is much awaited, this slight return is much appreciated and, with a set of live dates lined up, hopefully will alert folk to a local artist who has much to offer.

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